


Expectation

by Lady_Ganesh



Category: Tiger & Bunny
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Pre-Series, Pregnancy, Yuletide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-03
Updated: 2013-12-03
Packaged: 2018-01-03 09:05:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,104
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1068642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_Ganesh/pseuds/Lady_Ganesh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Becoming a parent is a lot more complicated than Kotetsu thought it would be. Tomoe seems to have it all in hand, though.</p><p>Thanks to indelicateink for betaing. Remaining mistakes are mine!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Expectation

**Author's Note:**

  * For [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts).



> Happy Yuletide, Kyarorain! I'm sorry baby Kaede didn't quite make it into the fic...but she'll be there before Kotetsu and Tomoe know it.
> 
> Thanks to my beta!

Kotetsu had thought becoming a parent would be pretty easy. Have a beautiful, perfect woman you wanted to spend the rest of your life with, get married, have a baby. Simple.

He hadn't realized how many moving parts there would be. He _definitely_ hadn't anticipated he'd start waking up at 3 am filled with anxiety on behalf of his pregnant wife and the little thing growing inside her that was, according to Tomoe's pregnancy books, now just over a centimeter long.

Tomoe, of course, had a three-ring binder prepared, with every single detail laid out with checkboxes: _10-week checkup. Buy crib. Ask Antonio if he will be godfather._ One of the checkboxes read _Notify Hero TV._

"Why are we telling Hero TV you're pregnant?" Kotetsu asked one day, as he was flipping through the pages. He wasn't checking up on Tomoe; there was zero need for that. But the notebook was an interesting window into how her mind worked, and he never got tired of learning more about his wife.

The mother of his child. Or at least the potential mother of his child.

He still couldn't really believe it.

"We are telling them," she said, "at an appropriate time. Otherwise, you won't get your full paternity leave." She looked up at him, her eyes squinting slightly. "It's in your contract."

Kotetsu frowned. "It is?"

She sighed. "Thank goodness the lawyer and I looked at that thing. You probably would've signed something that said your salary would be delivered in carrots and only paid on midnight of the full moon."

He shrugged. Maybe she was right. But that's why he had them. "You guys handled it. I get paid in real money, every week."

"Hn," she said, a simple syllable that more or less said _it's a good thing you're with me, or you probably really would be working for carrots._

"Other Heroes have had families," Kotetsu said. "Mr. Legend did, I remember him talking once about having a son on Hero TV. It can't be that big a deal."

"It doesn't hurt any to keep things in order," Tomoe said. "What do you think of Kaede?"

"Kaede who?" Someone new at the midwife's office, maybe? Kotetsu could never keep track of their names. He tried to, but they were all so cheerful and efficient he had trouble telling them apart. "Was that the new girl with the pink bow in her hair?"

Tomoe sighed, which managed to say _it's a miracle you can tie your own shoes_ without a single syllable. "For the baby," she said.

"Oh." Kotetsu sat down. Everything still felt so abstract to him. It was hard to believe that inside Tomoe was something that might need a name. That might call him _Daddy_ someday.

Maybe that's what all of Tomoe's charts were, a way of making it all more concrete. She wasn't really showing yet, and she'd been spared any morning sickness. Which was good -- it was great, as far as Kotetsu was concerned -- but maybe it felt unreal to her sometimes, too. Like they were still kids playing house, rather than two adults becoming a family.

Kaede. It was a good name. Strong. A Hero's child should be strong. Maybe Kaede would be a Hero some day too, and a Hero _definitely_ needed a strong name.

Two Heroes in the family.... "Tomoe?"

She looked up from her current chart. Kotetsu was pretty certain this one was about her weight. He wished she wouldn't worry about that.

"If the baby's a NEXT...what do you think?"

She frowned at him a little. "What do I think about what?"

"Mom worries so much about me. And I know you wanted me to be a Hero, but it's still hard on you. Will we want the baby to be a Hero?"

Her frown disappeared. "Kotetsu," she said. "If the baby grows up to be anything like either of us...do you really think we'll have any choice?"

He laughed at that. "I guess you're right." He patted the empty space on the couch. "Come here, stop fussing with your papers. I want to talk to the baby."

"A fetus can't hear until eighteen weeks," she said primly, but she got up and sat next to him. She felt warm, and her thick ponytail brushed against his shoulder. "I think I'm going to take my contacts out in a minute. My eyes are getting tired."

"They said your vision might change at the clinic," he said.

She smiled. "You were paying _some_ attention."

"I always pay attention when it comes to you," he said. He stretched out on the couch, putting his head in Tomoe's lap. "And you, baby. Whatever your name is."

Tomoe's hand rested on his head, brushing his hair gently. "You didn't tell me what you thought of Kaede."

"I think I like it," he said. "More for a girl than a boy. I can see a girl with your eyes and that name. But maybe for either, I'm not sure."

"Do you want to find out? If we're having a boy or a girl?"

"I don't know. I hadn't really thought about it." He shifted his weight so his mouth was closer to her stomach. "Baby, do you want us to know?"

"I already told you," Tomoe said. "Can't hear you."

"When will that be?"

She hesitated. "I don't remember. I mean, they don't have ears for a while, and then they grow their ears, but I can't remember if they can hear before or after their ears come in."

"That might be the silliest thing I've ever heard you say," Kotetsu said.

"I've been learning from you," she said. "Now let me take my contacts out."

"I'll make you dinner tonight," he said, letting her get up. "You've been so tired. How does fried rice sound?"

She disappeared into their bedroom. "Like what you always make when I'm too tired to cook."

"It's always good, isn't it?"

"I'm not sure we have any rice in the fridge. And it's no good when you make it with fresh rice." She paused for a moment. "I know you think it's still good, but you're wrong."

Kotetsu, whose mouth had already opened to insist that it _was_ still good with fresh rice, said, "I could make something else." _Probably._

"Check the fridge for rice," she said. "I'm sure we can think of something if we're out."

"Okay," he said, getting up. They always managed to work _something_ out. That wouldn't change, even if everything else was about to.

He would teach Kaede that, too.

And how to make fried rice.


End file.
